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Don Lemon Tonight

Was gunman Casing Other Targets; Las Vegas Killer Was Living A Secret Life; FBI's Interview With Gunman's girlfriend. Aired 11- Midnight ET

Aired October 05, 2017 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

[23:00:00] DON LEMON, CNN TONIGHT NEWS SHOW HOST: All right. I know you're on top of it. Thank you very much, Derek Van Dam. We appreciate it. This is "CNN tonight." I'm Don Lemon. It's 11:00 on the east coast. We're live with the new developments of the big stories tonight. Was Stephen Paddock casing other possible targets? We are learning tonight he booked a room overlooking another Vegas Music festival, two weeks ago.

Plus, in the wake of Sunday's massacre, President Trump says he'll be looking into a proposed ban of the kind of bump stock that the shooter use to make his weapon much more deadly. But will the President's base go along with that? We will discuss, I want to bring in CNN's Alex Marquardt who is live for us in las Vegas this evening. Good evening to you, Alex. What are you learning tonight?

ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: That is right, Don. We now know this massacre took place at a country music festival called the route 91 harvest Festival, but there are indications that Stephen Paddock may have been scouting two other major concert venues over the course of the past few weeks. We know for sure that here in in Las Vegas, he rented a room the weekend of September 22nd at the Ogden hotel. And it attracted thousands more fans. We know thankfully nothing happened that weekend. We're also hearing that there was a room rented under the same name, Stephen Paddock, in Chicago in August as the lollapalooza festival was being held in grant park overlooking grant park. We have not confirmed that the person who reserved the room under Stephen Paddock is the same Stephen Paddock. That person never showed up. But chilling that Paddock may have been going around scouting out these other music venues. There have been questions surrounding the death of Stephen Paddock. We know that he died from a self-inflicted wound on the 32nd floor. We've seen pictures released from that hotel room showing that there was a note. There are questions whether that was a suicide note. The police are saying that it was not a suicide note. They are not saying too much more. But the police aren't saying that that perhaps not the original plan to kill himself, that in fact, he wanted to try to get out alive. Don?

LEMON: So the FBI has tiptoed about what they have learned from interviewing the girlfriend. Do you have any new details about that?

MARQUARDT: Not even tiptoed. We know that Marilou Danley got back to the U.S. She was coming from the Philippines. She was being interviewed by the FBI. There wasn't an update today whether they were asking her questions her today. The news we are hearing is from Danley herself. She had been in the Philippines, she said, because Paddock had sent her back there, found her a flight to go back and visit her family. She said that he sent her money and told her to buy a house for her and her family. She was afraid that that meant that he was breaking up with her but she also said that there was zero indication in any of his behavior that he would have gone out and carried out this type of crime, this horrific massacre. Don?

LEMON: Alex Marquardt, thank you very much for your reporting this evening. Thousands of people were caught in the middle of the chaos of the Las Vegas massacre. Even those with no physical scars face almost unimaginable emotional trauma from scenes like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNFIRE)

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go! Keep your head down. Go!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep your head down. Go! Go! Go! Run that way. Go! Stay down!

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This way. Keep your head down. Keep your head down. Run that way.

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Unbelievable. It was relentless. Patrick Scott is a licensed psychotherapist and clinical Director of wellness centers of Nevada and he joins me now. Listen, it's traumatic, doctor, to watch it. You can't imagine being there, the emotional trauma likely to follow for these survivors of this mass shooting. Talk to us about the phases of trauma and some of the difficulties people should expect here.

PATRICK SCOTT, LICENSED PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Yeah. And that was disturbing. I mean, that is hard for me to listen to. All day this week, every day we've been talking with survivors and friends and family members of people who went through it and whether you were there or whether you know someone that was there, sadly lost someone, there are predictable stages that people go through. And they are the five stages of death and dying, the first one is shock and numb. And it's -- you're numb. You don't know how to feel. After the acute stress is over, you have no idea what's going on. You may not have any emotion at all. [23:05:19] Second one then is denial, which is, did that really

happen? I've been working with people this week that wake up and forget for a moment that this happened and then hear the news and they're reminded that it actually did happen. The third stage is actually a collection of feelings. It's labeled in her model as anger but it also can show up as fear, terror, sadness, guilt, hurt and any sort of negative emotions that can be kind of paralyzing. Fourth stage is bargaining and this is where survivors, people will say, I should have been there, I should have done something. I should not have allowed my loved one to go to that concert. It's merely the unconscious mind best attempt to try to cope with the uncertainty and the loss of control, frankly. And then finally, over time, all of us here in this community and everyone that is been touched by this and any other trauma will get to acceptance but it takes time and it's not something we take lightly. I'm very pleased to see how our community is coming together and how it's helping everyone here cope with what's happened.

LEMON: The timetable is different for every single person. Some people go through it quicker than others. Dr. Scott, you say that there is different protocol for each specific group who experiences law enforcement, medics, first responders, correct?

SCOTT: Correct. There's a model called critical incident stress debriefing. It's been around for a while. The protocol is something we've also used this week and it's very simple. It's three steps. The first step is to have the person who experienced the trauma just report journalistically with no feeling, if they can, or any sort of editorial comment. Second step is to have them go through the story again with a report on how they're thinking about it, what they thought of and all week I've been doing this with people thinking that they were going to die, thinking and seeing horrible things and wondering where they were and where their loved ones were and then we have them run through the scenario this time fully emoting actually with all the emotion, the fear, the terror, the horror and if you can get to somebody 48 to 72 hours after such an acute stress reaction, it can significantly minimize folks developing PTSD. It's a very simple model and it works out.

LEMON: I want to play for you the Clark County Coroner talking about how his staff is handling contacting the families of the deceased. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN FUDENBERG, CLARK COUNTY CORONER: I can tell you, needless to say, very, very difficult. Our staff notifies probably 10 to 15 people, maybe 20 people on a daily basis that they've lost a loved one. But that is a lot different when somebody's doing that once or twice a shift versus four or five times an hour. It's mentally exhausting. It's very stressful and I can tell you we're committed to get bereavement services and mental health services for our staff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Listen, they are professionals. They have trained for this. It's part of their job. But if you listen to the coroner there, they obviously have been traumatized by this as well.

SCOTT: Absolutely. We're human. We care. And to do that job takes a very special kind of a person, to work as a first responder take as very special personality and we're still human, we still have feelings, we still get scared and suffer the same thing that everybody else suffers. So get help is actually a core competency of the job, to be willing to debrief, to talk, to be willing to get the help that is available.

LEMON: Patrick Scott, thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Members of the Burton family of Wyoming were enjoying the concert in Las Vegas when bullets suddenly rained down on them. Clinton Burton was shot in the leg. Thankfully, his wife and son were ok. Yesterday, they got a Presidential visit in the hospital where Clint was recovering. His wife and Cydni and their son Bayelee are joining me now via facetime. I'm so happy that you guys are ok. It's so great to see all of you together. What a thanksgiving this is going to be. Thank you for joining us here on CNN. Cydni, I want to start with you. We just put that picture up of you and your family meeting the President and first lady in Las Vegas yesterday. How was that visit for you?

CYDNI BURTON, VEGAS SHOOTING SURVIVOR: It was an honor. He was -- him and his wife both are amazing. They were so kind. It was just amazing to be able to meet them.

LEMON: Clint, you were just released from the hospital yesterday. How are you doing tonight?

[23:10:03] CLINT BURTON, SHOT IN LEG DURING VEGAS SHOOTING: Yeah. I'm doing good. I'm starting to feel quite a bit better.

LEMON: I don't know if you were able -- go on. Sorry about that. We have a bit of delay. What did you want to say?

C. BURTON: The emotional effect is starting to take a little bit more place now but I'm -- I'm doing good.

LEMON: Well, that is -- oddly enough, that is what I was going to ask you. I'm not sure if you heard the doctor on before us talking about the stages of grief and I'm sure all of you are going through that, Clint. You said it's become emotional. At the beginning it was you need to survive and take care of yourself and now what's going on?

C. BURTON: Just -- I don't know. You know, talking about it helps and, you know, you kind of get to the point where you get tired of talking about it. I do want to thank before we get off here the two or three gentlemen that helped me. I don't know if I'll ever be able to find them. I know they were in a VIP Shirt and transported me to UMC medical center. If you're out there, and you can hear this, please get ahold of me. I owe you my life and definitely if not my life, my leg. I've had several doctors tell me that if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here and I just -- I need to tell them thank you.

LEMON: Absolutely. There are so many stories of heroism in people who were helping each other out and we focus on the event so much, but, Clinton, people really did kick into action and not even being concerned with their own safety and jumping in to help others, right?

C. BURTON: Exactly. These three right here, David, Bayelee, Brian, they're the perfect example of that. All three of them. I mean, if it wasn't for them, I don't know how many lives they saved themselves. We were separated at the time. They had no clue where I was. Bayelee was separated from us. They had no clue where he was. And they just -- Bayelee went in at least three times I know of to help people, help police, help the medical tent. I know David went in a few times. Grant thankfully had these three keeping track of them and trying to keep them calm. But it's -- it couldn't have been easy for any of them.

LEMON: Bayelee, you're letting Clint do all of the talking. Tell me about that when you realized how serious it was and how you went back in.

BAYELEE BURTON, HELPED EVACUATE AND TREAT VICTIMS OF VEGAS SHOOTING: When I -- after I got everyone calmed down around me, I did CPR on one guy and then after that I went around the corner and one of the police officers said I need some -- three people to go in and do searches and I went back in and did searches twice and then I went into the EMT tent and the EMT, the ladies in there were probably my age or even younger. Those girls did awesome. I mean, the stress around that area was unbelievable. All first responders there and people that helped did amazing.

LEMON: You know, Sidney and Clint, you guys raised a good point because I understand he just graduated from the fire academy and EMT school where he says his emergency response training immediately kicked in. So he is a good guy and a hero if he doesn't want to call himself one, Sidney. I started this by saying it's going to be a great thanksgiving. Talk to me about having your family together and alive. I know it's sad that 58 families are dealing with such horror but your family's together.

C. BURTON: When you talk about thanksgiving, what you see here is probably one-sixteenth of my family and we have a huge thanksgiving and I can tell you it's going to be the best thanksgiving. Just coming back to see the small amount that we have in this town is just unbelievable and our family is probably one of the tightest families you'll ever meet and we do everything together and just to see their faces was the best thing ever that just -- just to be able to hug them was amazing.

LEMON: Before I let you go, just introduce us again to everybody around you just so everyone can know who they are.

C. burton: This is my nephew Grant Coleman and I'm a firm believer we would not be here today if it were not for him. This his wife Amanda, my niece, my son Bayelee, sister Carrie and brother-in-law David and my husband Clint.

LEMON: Thank you. You have a beautiful family. Thank you so much for joining us. C. BURTON: Thank you.

[23:15:00] LEMON: And Clint, I hope your message gets to the person who helped rescue you and you guys are reunited. We had a family on earlier in the week and they had a little reuniting ceremony via facetime. Let's hope that that happens for you and in person and we wish you a speedy recovery. Thank you so much for joining us. You guys take care.

C. BURTON: I'd like to send our prayers out to all of the families that have lost somebody else. We are the very lucky ones.

LEMON: Thank you all.

C. BURTON: Thank you.

LEMON: When we come back, much more on the Las Vegas massacre. President Trump saying he may be open to a ban on bump stock that the shooter used. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: In the wake of Sunday's massacre, President Trump says he'll be looking into a proposed ban on the kind of bump stock that made the killer's weapons much more deadly. Let's explore that now. Chris Cillizza is here, political analyst April Ryan as well, senior political analyst David Gergen and Bob Cusack editor in chief of The Hill. Good evening, all. Let's have this conversation that is been so difficult for lawmakers to have, at least it appears to be.

[23:20:00] Bob, 12 of the guns modified with this device called a bump stock, essentially turning them into automatic weapons and tonight the President, top Republicans, even the NRA appear to be embracing the idea of banning these devices. But do you think that is a way for them to avoid the meaningful debate on guns that they have successfully done in recent history?

BOB CUSACK, EDITOR IN CHIEF, THE HILL: Well, I think it's the NRA seeing the writing on the wall that this is going to happen and I think it's remarkable. Even though, Don, this is very narrow, they're not going to get background checks any time soon but the fact that the NRA sees that this could have prevented some deaths and some injuries is remarkable. Whether it's attached to a fiscal deal in December, I think this is going to happen and this is a gun control measure that is significant. Now, a lot of members hadn't heard what a bump stock is but I think it's remarkable that in just the last 48 hours that congress is going to act. We haven't seen that in a long, long time on guns.

LEMON: OK. Fair point. But do you think it's a way for them to avoid a more meaningful conversation on gun control or gun control legislation by saying -- how can you disagree? Everyone agrees on that one issue.

CUSACK: It's a defensive measure, no doubt about it. If they fought this, it could be worse. Without a doubt, they are willing to take this narrow measure but not background checks, the Manchin/Toomey proposal.

LEMON: Similar question but slightly different, Chris. The NRA's joining the effort to restrict these bump stock devices, as you heard our colleague say that. But they are calling for the ATF, not congress, to deal with the situation. How important is that distinction?

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Important. Because remember, Don, this comes amid the proposal in Florida that essentially doing this legislatively, putting more regulations and restrictions on bump stocks. Now, if you do it through the ATF, that is not a legislative -- that is sort of an issuing of regulations to the executive branch as opposed to a legislative solution. Bob has got it right here. This is a strategic move by the NRA, because they now if it goes to the legislative front, we know there's an amendment process. You've got 535 members of congress who are going to want to have a say if not something in that bill, it can get loaded up in different ways, wind up getting broader, wind up going in directions you can't really control and it's a guarantee that we're talking about this for a month. Who knows how long the debate goes on. But certainly longer than if it goes into the broader federal bureaucracy that the ATF path represents. It's much more in the public eye. So, yes, the NRA didn't become an extremely powerful political and lobbying force, because they're dumb. Right? They know --

LEMON: What about giving concessions?

CILLIZZA: They see the writing on the wall. This is a sacrificed battle to win the broader fight, Don, which Bob is right, this one seems like it's happening. Get in front of it. Be able to say, both for you and for members of congress who support you and your cause, gun rights activists, be able to say we are for something. We're not just against everything. We're for this. Now, we're not for broader, sweeping stuff as it relates to the second amendment but we're not just against it and that is why this is happening.

LEMON: Okay. For both David and April, I want to play something first, because tonight the President and first lady had dinner with top military commanders. I want you to check out this moment during the photo op with the spouses. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You guys, now what this represents [ inaudible ] maybe it's the calm before the storm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From Iran? On ISIS? What storm Mr. President?

TRUMP: We have the world's great military people in this room. I will tell you that. Thank you all for coming.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What storm, Mr. President?

TRUMP: You'll find out.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: The President, obviously a student of reality television, is

good with the tease, saying this is coming up. Something big is going to happen. What is he talking about, David? What is he talking about?

DAVID GERGEN, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYT: It could be one of several things, Don. I think the immediate assumption was he was talking about North Korea but it could very much be about Iran because he is going give this speech or make a pronouncement on Iran in the next few days and we know that he is going to come out against the deal and how far this is going to go is going to be very important.

[23:25:00] It could be, Don -- it could well be a shakeup in the administration. This Tillerson story is not going away quickly. There are too many other issues that are now involved, the tensions and what we've been hearing about what went on. So it could have one of several things. But teasing when it comes to the use of force is not a good idea. What you have to do to prepare the public in a much more sensible way before you engage in military action.

And I think they need to do a much better job if they're preparing to decertify Iran and throw this whole thing up in the air. They need to do a much better job of explaining.

LEMON: So April, as it relates to what we just heard from the President, the country's dealing with major foreign policy problems, including North Korea and Iran, joking and handling it in such a light manner, I don't understand that. There's a reason I saved you for last. You're there every single day. What is going on here?

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALIST: Well, you know, we have to wait to see what's actually happening. But like David said and you've said, there's so much that comes to the White House and this is a sobering moment. They're talking about all options are on the table. The President is pushing or at least talking about military options when it comes to dealing with North Korea. This is a very sobering moment and then you have Iran and so much going on.

And we have to wait and see but, again, this President, you never know what's coming out of door number one, number two or number three and when it comes and, you know, we are at a time when he is at odds with this man of peace. Secretary Tillerson, we're hearing these things about Secretary Tillerson calling the President a moron. This President is dealing with a lot.

His man of peace is in the midst of news and there's questions about whether he is going to stay, again, at a sobering time, a time like this when we don't know if there will be military action and you also have the President a few weeks ago talking about sending troops back to Afghanistan. So there's a lot on the table. We just don't know what the President is planning next.

LEMON: A lot to discuss. Stick around, everyone. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [23:30:38] DON LEMON, CNN TONIGHT NEWS SHOW HOST: Tonight, a CNN

exclusive and it's a major development in the Russia investigation. Back now with my panel. Hello, panel. Chris, you first. Tonight, sources are telling CNN that the special counsel's team met with the former British spy who put together the controversial dossier on alleged Russian efforts to help the Trump campaign in the election.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yep.

LEMON: What do you think that means for this investigation?

CILLIZZA: Well, I think it in some ways tells us what we already knew, which is Bob Mueller is going down every potential rabbit hole here in making sure that he checks into every possible thing. There's been so much written speculated around this dossier, there are parts of it that the much less salacious parts that have been confirmed by intelligence sources which is essentially, yes, the Russians did engage in an active attempt to meddle in our election for the purposes of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary but the thing that is interesting here, Richard Burr castigated a day ago and said Mr. Steele will not come up and testify, but this is someone who did spend a significant period of time looking into Russian attempts to influence the American election. So put aside the salacious stuff that I know drive a lot of internet click. Christopher Steele has learned a significant amount of information about what Russia was trying to do here and the ways in which they were trying to do it. It makes perfect sense that Mueller would talk to him, but reaffirms this is not a narrow investigation the way that Donald Trump had hoped. And we knew that but this is yet another piece of that.

LEMON: He may be more comfortable talking with investigators rather than politicians.

CILLIZZA: Yes.

LEMON: So David listen, intelligence agencies took Christopher Steele's dossier seriously enough that they kept it out of a publicly released January report on Russian meddling in the election in order not to divulge which parts of the dossier they had corroborated and how. They didn't want to give away sources and methods. What does this say to you about Steele's information?

DAVID GERGEN, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYT: Well, it certainly says, as Chris has said, Mueller is looking under every rock and it was serious enough for him to call this guy in. Didn't do it from long distance. They actually called him in and they checked his credibility. The big question is what happened after they talked to him. That will tell us whether they are pursing some of the things in the documents or will they check it and focus on other things. I've been in New York City the last couple of days and talked to a number of people in the financial community and there you hear the continuous emphasis not on the dossier, but on the issue of money laundering. The people in the investment community, you frequently hear from them, watch the money, see if there was laundering. That could be the more serious issue here. LEMON: I'm wondering, April, how the White House is going to react

because the President has said it's fiction, made up by sleazebag political operatives. How do you think they're going to react?

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALIST: Exactly the way you're talking. They are going to try to downplay it. We've been hearing more about dossiers and different things early on and a staffer even said something about a dossier. We've talked about that before at nauseam. This is a real issue where the President likes to say that we are fake and following things that just are not true. But when you have somebody with the credibility of Mueller and hearing these things that are happening, be it a narrow scope or a broad scope and it looks like the scope is very broad for Mueller to follow, this is real and this is serious. Now, if it leads to something, something really concrete, that remains to be scene. But this President has to deal with this and this White House has to really face this, that there is smoke. There continues to billow.

LEMON: But, Bob, there may not be anything there and in order to figure out if it's true or false, you have to chase it. Top lawmakers in the Senate Intelligence Committee said yesterday they had hit a wall in an attempt to interview Christopher Steele but he is cooperating with Mueller. What do you make of that?

[23:35:04] BOB CUSACK, EDITOR IN CHIEF, THE HILL: I think the thing to watch in the next several weeks to months is the cooperation between Mueller and the White House. The White House lawyers initially -- Trump's lawyers were kind of combative in saying, wait a minute, Mueller and Comey are friends. And then they kind of backed off and they have been very cooperative. Let's see what happens over the next two to three months. I think that could change.

LEMON: Thank you all. I appreciate it.